The minimum daily wage will be raised by the end of next month, but the new rate won’t reach the 400 baht promised by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin previously, Labour Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn said on Monday.
The wage hike is intended as a New Year gift for daily wage earners, while the promised 400-baht new minimum daily wage rate will be introduced around the end of next year (2024) in certain provinces, said the minister.
To make the coming rises in daily minimum wages fair and acceptable to all sides -- employers, employees and the government – the ministry was instructing all provincial labour offices to conduct a new survey on businesses of all sizes and forward the results to the central tripartite wage committee, he said.
All provinces are required to finish proposing a new minimum daily wage rate by Nov 17 and forward their proposal to the committee, which is supposed to decide on the proposals by early December, he said.
The approved new wage rates will then be next forwarded to the cabinet for endorsement, he said.
In a survey last year, 31 provinces said they didn’t want to raise their minimum daily wage for fear of adverse impact on businesses leading to job cuts, he said.
In the end, the minumum daily wage was raised in all 77 provinces to between 328 and 354 baht.
Rayong, Chon Buri and Phuket have the highest daily minimum wage rate of 354 baht, followed by 353 baht in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Nakhon Patho, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakand and Samut Sakhon, said Mr Pipat.
In related news, the Secretariat of the Cabinet issued an urgent letter pertaining to the PM’s instruction for all government organisations to study hiking the monthly salaries of civil servants and all other types of state employees.
The government believed the issues needed to be addressed in tandem, said the letter.
Findings from the study are expected to be reported back to the government by the end of this month.
Wirabun Semathong, president of the Federation of Teachers Association of Thailand, welcomed the PM’s instruction, saying teachers’ salaries had not been raised for more than 10 years.